Subscriber based policy for service network gateways

ABSTRACT

A subscriber network can provide services. External applications can use the services on the subscriber network. A service access gateway can control application access to services of the subscriber network. The service access gateway can filter requests from an external application to access services on the subscriber network based on the customer for which the external application is accessing the service.

BACKGROUND

With the ever-increasing popularity of the World Wide Web, more and more previously unrelated technologies are becoming integrated with the enormous network of information and functionality that the internet provides. Everything from television and radio to books and encyclopedias are becoming available online, amongst a wide variety of other technologies. One such area of technology is telephony and the related telecommunications services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary gateway of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary service class of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart illustrating a method of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention includes a subscriber network 102 providing services 110 and 112. Subscriber network services can include delivery of short messages to the subscriber's mobile device, obtaining the geographic location of the subscriber's mobile device, etc. External applications 104, 106 and 108 use the services on the subscriber network 102. Service providers can provide these external applications 104, 106 and 108.

A service access gateway 120 can control application access to services 110 and 112 of the subscriber network 102. The service access gateway 120 can filter requests from an external application 104 to access a service 110 on the subscriber network based on the customer (subscriber) for which the external application is accessing the service.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary gateway 200. The service access gateway can maintain service classes 202 that indicate an external application and service.

The service classes 202 can further include restriction information.

The service access gateway 200 can store indications of which customer opts in or opts out of which service classes. This can be done using an in-memory filter based on service class and customer. The customer can be identified by information, such as an URI or a customer ID.

A profile provider 204 can register a customer profile with the service access gateway 200 so that the service access gateway 200 can determine how to filter external application requests for the customer. An API 208 can allow multiple profile providers 204 and 205 to register with a subscriber profile manager 210.

An interceptor 220 at the service access gateway can be used to intercept requests to check whether the external application can access a service for a customer. In one embodiment, the interceptors can be chained components that process requests in order. In one embodiment, the interceptor can pass, block or allow a request. Other interceptors can include a service provider SLA interceptor 222 and a subscriber network node level SLA interceptor 224.

A subscriber profile manager 210 can maintain in memory filters for service classes for a customer.

FIG. 3 shows an example of service class 302. The service class 302 is associated with applications 304, 306 and 308 from service providers 310 and 312 and services 314 and 316 from the subscriber network. Service class 302 also has associated restriction information 320. In this example, service class 302 is associated with subscribers 322 and 324.

In the example of FIG. 3, if application 304 makes a request on service 314 for a customer, the gateway checks whether any service classes are associated with this request.

In this example, service class 302 is associated with the request. The gateway also knows what subscribers are associated with the service class 302. In this example, if the request is done for subscriber 322, the request can be allowed subject to the restrictions 320 of the service class 302 and any restrictions associated with the subscriber profile.

An exemplary service class definition is shown below:

<ServiceClass name=”news_subscription”>   <references>     References include service provider groups, application groups,     and service interfaces.   <references>   <restriction>     Rate or quota throttling restriction on service usage.   </restriction> </ServiceClass>

A Service Class can be a Quality of Service (QoS) grouping for some set of subscribers. The service class can define an intersection of services being requested with applications requesting that service.

A Subscriber Address can be used which is a URI in the request that uniquely identifies a subscriber. The subscriber address can be a destination address for a particular service.

The Subscriber Address can be extracted across all network traffic through service gateway for routing and other decisions. The Subscriber Address can be masked or mapped through an external lookup.

Subscriber Contract can be a rate and/or quota restriction per Subscribers Address within a specific Service Class. Rate and quota can be defined in terms of some timeframe. Rate and quota restrictions can restrict the use by a customer per unit time. Rate relates to a short timeframe such as a use per second and thus rate count information need not be persisted. Quota relates to a longer timeframe, such as use per month. Quota count information can be persisted to deal with server crashes and the like.

A request that matches a particular Service Class can be restricted in rate and/or quota amounts maintained for a given Subscriber Address. Subscriber Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can be instances of Service Class definitions that are mapped to particular subscribers. A service class can be a restriction expressed in rate or quota request rate applied to some combination of applications, service providers, and services.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a method of the present invention. In step 402, for a request, the application, the requested service and customer are identified. In step 404, the application, requested server and customer information is matched with any matching service classes. In step 406, contract information, including rate and quota restrictions from the matched service classes is obtained. In step 408, the current usage count(s) for the customer relevant to the rate and/or quota restriction is obtained from memory. In step 410, the rate and/or quota restrictions are enforced. For example, if the rate and/or quota restrictions are exceeded, the request can be denied or some other action taken.

A Profile Provider can be an extension that maps profile data onto Service Class for some range of subscribers.

Subscriber SLA contracts can be used. Throttling restrictions, such as the rate/quota restrictions, can be defined in the subscriber SLA or can come from the user profile. In one embodiment, the ‘Null restriction’ does not allow any traffic for a Service Class for a subscriber.

In various embodiments, the network gatekeeper application can be built on top of a JAVA 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) compliant application server. The gatekeeper can provide a policy driven telecommunications web services gateway that allows granular control over access to network resources from un-trusted domains. In one embodiment, the gatekeeper is a service access gateway deployed by a telecom provider in order to manage access to its network by the third party services that are offered to the various subscribers of the telecom provider.

As previously mentioned, the various embodiments include a computer program product which is a storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a general purpose or specialized computing processor(s)/device(s) to perform any of the features presented herein. The storage medium can include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following: any type of physical media including floppy disks, optical discs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, microdrives, magneto-optical disks, holographic storage, ROMs, RAMs, PRAMS, EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMs, VRAMs, flash memory devices, magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs); and any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or information. The computer program product can be transmitted in whole or in parts and over one or more public and/or private networks wherein the transmission includes instructions which can be used by one or more processors to perform any of the features presented herein. In various embodiments, the transmission may include a plurality of separate transmissions.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations can be apparent to the practitioner skilled in the art. Embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the relevant art to understand the invention. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. 

1. A system comprising: a subscriber network providing services; external applications that use services on the subscriber network; and a service access gateway to control application access to services of the subscriber network; wherein the service access gateway filters requests from an external application to access a service on the subscriber network based on the customer for which the external application is accessing the service and wherein the service access gateway maintains service classes that indicate an external application and service.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service classes further include restriction information.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the restriction is a rate or quota restriction that restricts use per unit time.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service access gateway stores indication of which customer opts in or opts out of which service classes.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein a profile provider can register a profile with the service access gateway so that the service access gateway can determine how to filter external application requests for the customer.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein an interceptor at the service access gateway is used to intercept requests to check whether the external application can access a service for a customer.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein a subscriber profile manager maintains in memory filters for service classes for a customer.
 8. A service access gateway to control application access to the services of a subscriber network; wherein the service access gateway filters requests from an external application to access a service on the subscriber network based on the customer for which the external application is accessing the service; and wherein the service access gateway maintains service classes that indicate an external application and service.
 9. The service access gateway of claim 8, wherein the service classes further include restriction information.
 10. The service access gateway of claim 9, wherein the restriction is a rate or quota restriction that restricts use per unit time.
 11. The service access gateway of claim 8, wherein the service access gateway stores indication of which customer opts in or opts out of which service classes.
 12. The service access gateway of claim 8, wherein a profile provider can register a profile with the service access gateway so that the service access gateway can determine how to filter application requests for the customer.
 13. The service access gateway of claim 8, wherein an interceptor at the service access gateway is used to intercept requests to check whether the external application can access a service for a customer.
 14. A computer readable storage medium comprising: a service access gateway to control external application access to services of a subscriber network; wherein the service access gateway filters requests from an external application to access a service on the subscriber network based on the customer for which the external application is accessing the service; and wherein the service access gateway maintains service classes that indicate an external application and service.
 15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the service classes further include restriction information.
 16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the restriction is a rate or quota restriction that restricts use per unit time.
 17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the service access gateway stores indication of which customer opts in or opts out of which service classes.
 18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein a profile provider can register a profile with the service access gateway so that the service access gateway can determine how to filter application requests for the customer.
 19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein an interceptor at the service access gateway is used to intercept requests to check whether the external application can access a service for a customer.
 20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein a subscriber profile manager maintains in memory filters for service classes for a customer. 